The subject invention relates to an identification card or similar item which serves as evidence of the identity or status of an object or other entity. More particularly, it relates to an identification card or similar item which has a high degree of security against forgery or tampering, and to methods and apparatus for producing and authenticating such cards.
(As used herein the term xe2x80x9cidentification cardxe2x80x9d will preferably refer to an item similar to an identification badge of the type used by businesses to identify their employees, but it is within the contemplation of the subject invention, and as used herein the term xe2x80x9cidentification cardxe2x80x9d shall include, without limitation, documents, magnetic disks, CD""s, or any other suitable item which may record an image together with related data and which may be associated with an object or other entity to be identified.)
The identification of objects or other entities is a problem at least as old as history. Isaac, blinded by age, mistakenly relied upon Esau""s hairiness to distinguish him from Jacob, while Solomon was forced to threaten to kill a baby in order to identify its mother. History and fiction abounds with tales of letters, tokens, signets and passwords used to identify the bearer, and the consequences which have followed from their loss or forgery.
In modern times the most prevalent solution to this problem is the identification card which serves to establish the identity of the bearer, as well as usually some characteristic, status, or attribute of the bearer. Examples are the employee badge, as noted above, and, most commonly, the driver license. Typically, such identification cards will include a picture of the nominal bearer as well as relevant information in text form.
While identification cards and the like have generally proven useful for the day to day conduct of affairs nevertheless they are still subject to forgery or tampering, and indeed a moderately sized illegal industry exist for the purpose of providing false identification documents.
For applications where a high degree of security of identification is required, efficient techniques have been developed to recognize fingerprints, voice patterns, retinal patterns, or other characteristics of individuals. Such systems are highly successful in uniquely identifying individuals known to the system, but are subject to the disadvantages of requiring highly sophisticated, expensive sensors, which are typically not mobile, and which must be connected to a database which identifies selected individuals in terms of physical characteristics such as fingerprints. Such a database must generally be centrally located, both to protect it from tampering and to facilitate updating. Thus, these sophisticated systems are generally limited to restricting access to secure areas.
As is apparent from the above discussion the most common application of identification cards is to identify persons. However, the problem of identification may extend to a very broad class of objects or other entities. Thus, it may be desirable to be able to establish that a particular item has been inspected, or passed through customs, or was produced by a particular company. Similarly, it may be desirable to have secure evidence of the provenance of an art work, or the pedigree of an animal, or that a person, animal, or plant is free from disease. Such applications, and others which will be apparent to those skilled in the art are within the contemplation of the subject invention.
Perhaps because it relates to information, rather than tangible objects, the identification or authentication of documents or other forms of information has been dealt with perhaps more successfully in the past; usually by use of some form of encryption. Thus, U.S. Pat. No. 4,853,961; for: xe2x80x9cReliable Document Authentication Systemxe2x80x9d: to: Pastor; issued: Aug. 1, 1989, discloses a system wherein a document is authenticated by encryption using a public key encryption system. U.S. Pat. No. 4,637,051; to Clark discloses a postage meter having an indicia which is authenticated by encryption. Many other applications of encryption to authenticate information will be known to those skilled in the art.
Thus, it is an object of the subject invention to provide an identification card to identify an object or other entity, which card is secure against tampering and forgery.
The above object is achieved and the disadvantages of the prior art are overcome in accordance with the subject invention by means of a method and apparatus for producing an identification card and for validating that identification card. Apparatus for producing an identification card includes a scanner for producing a first signal representative of an image of the object or other entity to be identified, and a printer responsive to the scanner for printing the image on a first portion of the identification card. The apparatus further includes an encrypter for encrypting a second signal, which is derived, at least in part, from the first signal, and which includes a representation of the image; and a coder for incorporating a coded representation of the encryption of the second signal onto a second portion of the identification card.
Apparatus for validating an identification card so produced includes a reader for reading the coded representation of the second signal from the card, a decoder for decoding the coded representation of the second signal, a decrypter for decrypting the decoded signal, and a display for displaying the representation of the image incorporated in the second signal.
In accordance with the method of the subject invention the object to be identified is scanned to produce the first signal and a printer is controlled by the first signal to print the image of the object on the first portion of the identification card. The second signal, which is derived at least in part from the first signal, and which includes a representation of the image is encrypted and coded and incorporated in the second portion of the identification card.
Once produced the card is then validated by reading the coded representation of the second signal from the identification card, decoding and decrypting the second signal, and controlling a display in accordance with the decrypted second signal to display the representation of the image which is included in the second signal. The displayed representation of the image and the printed image on the first portion of the card are then compared to validate the card, and the printed image is compared to the object to confirm its identity.
In accordance with one aspect of the subject invention the first signal is converted into a digital signal for processing.
In accordance with another aspect of the subject invention the second signal includes a compressed form of the first signal.
(Signal compression is well known to those skilled in the art and, in the case of digital signals, involves the application of a predetermined algorithm to a signal to reduce the number of bytes which must transmitted or processed, while still retaining substantially all of the information represented by the signal.)
In accordance with another aspect of the subject invention the second signal is encrypted using an encryption key Ei, for a public key encryption system.
In accordance with still another aspect of the subject invention a decryption key, Di which correspondences to the key, Ei, is encrypted with a second encryption key, E1, for the public key encryption system, and the resulting encrypted decryption key E1 [Di], is appended to the encrypted second signal prior to incorporation of the second signal into the second portion of the identification card.
In accordance with still another aspect of the subject invention the encrypted second signal is printed on the second portion of the identification card as a two dimensional bar code.
In accordance with yet still another aspect of the second invention the apparatus for validating the identification card stores a decryption key D1, corresponding to key E1 and the decryption of the encrypted second signal includes the step of decrypting the encrypted key, E1[Di], using the decryption key, D1, to obtain the decryption key Di, which may then be used to decrypt the encrypted second signal.
In accordance with still another aspect of the subject invention the second signal includes a text message and the text message includes a password which is known to a person who is to be identified by the identification card.
In accordance with still a further aspect of the subject invention the second signal includes a text message which is also printed in plain text form on the first portion of the identification card.
Thus, it can be seen that the subject invention achieves the above stated object by providing a method and apparatus for producing an identification card which includes an image which may be easily compared to the object or other entity whose identity is to be verified, and which is highly resistant to forgery or tampering. Other objects and advantages of the subject invention will be readily apparent to those skilled in the art from consideration of the attached drawings and the detailed description set forth below.